Wednesday, 2 September 2015

“Nothing.I just followed the spec.” Joachim was new at
the factory, so he didn’t have a point of reference, but the supervisor looked
pretty furious.

“Does
that look like nothing?” The supervisor said pointing to the bank of
CCTV’s.On it, a giant Automata – that’s
what they called the robots they made – was climbing up a ventilation
shaft.The shaft was too small, but the
vast Automata just broke through the rock anyway as it made its way to the
surface. “Oh no, it’s going to make the surface.You must have done something!”

Joachim
shrugged.“I did it by the book.” He
proffered the book to his shift supervisor.The man seemed unable to take his eyes off the grainy monitor showing
the giant machine climbing to the surface. Finally he turned to Joachim.

“OK,
let’s see the specs then – “

“Joachim.
“

“Right,
Joachim.Bring up your screen.Let’s start with the 3D printing.” Joachim did as he was told and brought up the
screen that instructed the factory to machine parts for the Automata.The supervisor looked at the folder and back
at Joachim’s screen. Then he looked at Joachim and shook his head. “You tell
me. “ He handed Joachim the folder.Joachim look back and forth between the specs and his entry.Where it read 50cm for the legs, he’d entered
50 metres. Where it read 40cms for the arms, he’d entered 40 metres.The factory didn’t care what you asked it to
do, so it had merrily set about machining and assembling the parts. Tiny errors
in data entry and he’d created the gargantuan thing in the air shaft.

“Oh
no...”

“Oh
no? I want to say I’m surprised, but strangely you didn’t invent the sloppy
work culture at this factory.” The supervisor took the folder back.

“Can’t
we turn it off?We can probably recycle
most of it. “

“Too
late, it’s reached the surface.”

Joachim
pulled a puzzled face. “Why’s it too late?”

“Because
you’re not the first idiot to do this.When it reaches the surface, it’ll realise it doesn’t fit the dimension
of the world outside and go…nuts.”

“Doesn’t
seem likely,” replied Joachim.

“It’s
not likely, it’s certain.I know, because
it’s happened before.”The shift
supervisor picked up the phone and dialled a long number. “This is factory
3.We have a B.U.G about to make
surface, request full response.” He nodded satisfied and put the phone
down.Up on the monitor, a giant hand
and head was emerging from the ravine.

“What’s
a B.U.G?” asked Joachim.

“Big
Unfriendly Giant.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>the end<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

IF YOU LIKED THIS STORY, I HAVE A BIG SCI FI ANTHOLOGY OF SIMILAR STORIES AVAILABLE ON KINDLE - YOU CAN GET IT FOR JUST $2.99 - LINKS BELOW: